diff --git a/src/Context.cpp b/src/Context.cpp
index a1edaa1b4..24b68c4cb 100644
--- a/src/Context.cpp
+++ b/src/Context.cpp
@@ -1328,6 +1328,12 @@ void Context::debugTiming (const std::string& details, const Timer& timer)
   debug (out.str ());
 }
 
+////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+CurrentTask Context::withCurrentTask (const Task *task)
+{
+  return CurrentTask(this, task);
+}
+
 ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 // This capability is to answer the question of 'what did I just do to generate
 // this output?'.
@@ -1429,6 +1435,19 @@ void Context::debug (const std::string& input)
     debugMessages.push_back (input);
 }
 
+////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+CurrentTask::CurrentTask (Context *context, const Task *task)
+  : context {context}, previous {context->currentTask}
+{
+  context->currentTask = task;
+}
+
+////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+CurrentTask::~CurrentTask ()
+{
+  context->currentTask = previous;
+}
+
 ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
 
 // vim ts=2:sw=2
diff --git a/src/Context.h b/src/Context.h
index 31a071d52..06159f6d2 100644
--- a/src/Context.h
+++ b/src/Context.h
@@ -38,6 +38,8 @@
 #include <Timer.h>
 #include <set>
 
+class CurrentTask;
+
 class Context
 {
 public:
@@ -73,6 +75,9 @@ public:
   void decomposeSortField (const std::string&, std::string&, bool&, bool&);
   void debugTiming (const std::string&, const Timer&);
 
+  CurrentTask withCurrentTask (const Task *);
+  friend class CurrentTask;
+
 private:
   void staticInitialization ();
   void createDefaultConfig ();
@@ -115,6 +120,24 @@ public:
   long                                time_sort_us        {0};
   long                                time_render_us      {0};
   long                                time_hooks_us       {0};
+
+  // the current task for DOM references, or NULL if there is no task
+  const Task *                        currentTask         {NULL};
+};
+
+////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
+// CurrentTask resets Context::currentTask to NULL on destruction; this ensures
+// that this context value is not a dangling pointer.
+class CurrentTask {
+  ~CurrentTask();
+
+private:
+  CurrentTask(Context *context, const Task *previous);
+
+  Context *context;
+  const Task *previous;
+
+  friend class Context;
 };
 
 #endif